Pabluk Locker Ransomware

The 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware is a Trojan that can lock your screen and prevent you from accessing other applications to extort money from you. Although it bases itself on a preexisting threat with wider geographical distribution, this threat's campaign targets residents of Poland. Anti-malware utilities can delete the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware before it blocks your desktop and appropriate system-recovery strategies can disable the attack and let you disinfect a compromised PC.

A Simple Hoodie Gets Unwelcome, New Implications

The Trojan-creating platform of AdvancedRansomware, previously responsible for the emergence of fake Windows updates that lock your screen, now is being put to a new purpose: the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware campaign. This Polish-targeting Trojan provides a minimum of information and attacks to achieve its goal of forcing you to pay to regain access to your computer. Most likely the work of an amateur threat author, the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware makes some mistakes in its campaign that, as malware experts have noted, are highly exploitable to the benefit of your PC's security.

While the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware's distribution model is under examination, the Trojan installs itself through a small Windows executable, with moderate threat detection rates from relevant anti-malware products. Some of its aliases are possible hints that the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware may disguise the installer as some form of 'readme' file attached to an e-mail or instant message. Post-infection, the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware launches a borderless pop-up window to block your desktop and, in theory, your access to all other applications. The window uses a background of an anonymous hoodie, possibly to evoke the historical memory of European snipers like Simo Häyhä.

The 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware conducts all ransom negotiations for unlocking your computer through the e-mail addresses it provides, including, unusually, a Google Gmail address. The victim is assumed to message the Trojan's author at the address and pay a ransom (frequently with a prepaid card or cryptocurrency) to buy the unlocking code. However, other, free methods of unlocking the desktop remain available for victims in need of them.

The Key to Your Computer You Don't Need to Buy

The 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware's author has put a minimum of effort into formatting his ransom demands or protecting his C&C infrastructure and is unlikely to have many years of experience in the threat industry. However, the centerpiece vulnerability malware experts see in the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware is its use of the 'pabluk400' unlocking code. This password is static, rather than personalized, meaning that the victim has no incentive for paying its ransom. Most ransom-based Trojans take additional steps to customize their payloads to prevent such an easy solution from happening explicitly.

The 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware also has been distributing itself without trying to obfuscate its EXE extension, which can help you detect the threat before launching it by mistake. Despite that weakness, scanning all of your downloads before opening them also is advisable for keeping any similar threat from compromising and locking your PC. Since the campaign still is new, anti-malware detection percentages for deleting the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware are non-ideal but growing.

As minor as a threat as the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware may be, even its small payload can lock you out of your computer indefinitely. Victims practicing lax security standards may wish to familiarize themselves with features like Safe Mode and emergency system-boot-up devices, both of which are useful for stopping auto-launching Trojans like the 'Pabluk Locker' Ransomware routinely.